Hollow vanes are well understood in the art of heating, ventilating and air conditioning and these vanes are devices that are formed from two individual sheets of material joined at their lateral edges wherein a first sheet is provided with a first radius and a second sheet of another radius is arranged therebehind such that a space is provided between the sheets. The concept of such a vane is that at the corners of duct work, a cross-sectional area of the duct is obviously greater than at and in the straight line portions of the duct and the insertion of these vanes not only reduces the cross-sectional area but also guides the air flowing there-through smoothly around the corner.
In the past, applicant has provided a device for shearing of hollow vanes which eliminates any sawing process that was previously utilized to cut the vanes. When cutting had been used, much distortion of the two spaced surfaces would result and a smooth cut would not be achieved. The noise and time of sawing is also relatively greater in comparison to applicant's original shearing concept, this concept being fully set forth along with a device for accomplishing the same in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,603, issued Dec. 11, 1973.
Applicant's device as disclosed herein is a modification of his initial shearing unit and now makes the shearing of such vanes automatic and which further, in certain aspects of this invention, permits control of the machine which produces the vanes.
With applicant's device, a shearing unit is provided which will effectively shear both of the surfaces which form the hollow vane while the vane is held in a position to retain its desired, preformed shape. This preformed shape is normally produced from a vane producing machine and with applicant's device, the formed vane is introduced directly from the vane former to the shear where it is sheared to its desired length without interim cutting or storage thereof.
Applicant's device then provides a unit which may be, in a preferred form, utilized with a vane producing machine and when attached thereto may control the operation of the vane producing machine but whether used in conjunction with such a machine or used separately, the device will provide a means for automatically shear-hollow vanes to a predetermined length.
It is therefore an object of applicant's invention to provide an automatic hollow vane shear arranged and constructed to receive a preformed hollow vane, determine the length of vane delivered and upon a predetermined length being delivered, clamp the same and thereafter shear both of the surfaces of the vane.
It is a further object of applicant's invention to provide an automatic hollow vane shearing device which provides a clamping device for the vane passing there-through which will normally hold the vane from a die surface to allow proper insertion of the vane into the die and will, after the vane has been delivered to a predetermined length, clamp the same against the die surface for proper shearing thereof.
It is still a further object of applicant's invention to provide an automatic hollow vane shearing device which will provide for the sequential receiving, clamping, shearing and movement of the shearing portion thereof which device may be used in conjunction with a vane forming machine and which device may be operatively arranged to control the vane forming machine.
It is still a further object of applicant's invention to provide a hollow vane shearing device which will sense a length of vane to be cut and allow predetermination of such length and which further provides for clamping of the vane during the shearing process and which will release such clamping force to permit the sheared vane to be released from the device.